Recently, the research group led by Prof. Xie Shuifen from Huaqiao University (HQU)’s College of Materials Science & Engineering published online their latest research in the area of electrocatalysts on Advanced Materials, one of the world’s most prestigious journals of materials science. The article was titled “Biphase Pd Nanosheets with Atomic-Hybrid RhOx/Pd Amorphous Skins Disentangle the Activity-Stability Trade-Off in Oxygen Reduction Reaction”.

Oxygen Reduction Reaction (ORR) holds the key to the development of fuel cells. However, it tends to be unstable at the beginning. How to ensure the long-term stability of catalysts while maintaining high activity has remained the main challenge in this field. Prof. Xie’s research group has synthesized unique neoteric biphase Pd nanosheets, that are structured with ultrathin two-dimensional crystalline Pd inner cores and ≈1 nm thin atomic-hybrid RhOx/Pd amorphous skins, named c/a-Pd@PdRh NSs, disentangling the activity-stability trade-off relationship of oxygen reduction reaction (ORR). The atomically hybrid RhOx/Pd disorder surfaces offered much flexibly coordinated surface activity sites and enabled the redistribution of interfacial charge and optimization of reaction pathways, resulting in a substantial enhancement of ORR catalytic activity (5.92 A mg−1, 22.8 times that of Pt/C). Thanks to the amplified interfacial effects of these anticorrosive Rh/RhOxspecies, the biphase c/a-Pd@PdRh NSs simultaneously exhibit a superhigh ORR activity (5.92 A mg−1, 22.8 times that of Pt/C) and an outstanding long-lasting stability after 100k cycles of accelerated durability test, breaking the activity-stability trade-off relationship of ORR.

HQU doctoral students Lyu Zixi and Cai Junlin co-first authored the paper, with HQU as the first and corresponding affiliation, and Prof. Xie Shuifen as first corresponding author. Co-corresponding author Associate Prof. Zhang Xiaguang of Henan Normal University did theoretical calculations. The research was sponsored by NSFC, Natural Science Foundation of Fujian Province, Fujian Chemistry Alliance and Huaqiao University scientific research fund.

Link to the paper: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/adma.202314252

(Editor: Wei Linying)